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Updated: Jan 30, 2026

Translating Extracellular Electron Transfer Activities with Organic Electrochemical Transistors
Published on: January 31, 2025
Nitrogen-containing activated carbon of improved electrochemical performance derived from cotton stalks using
Shan-Shan Xu1, Shu-Wei Qiu2, Zhong-Yong Yuan3
1School of Chemical Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, Tianjin 300130, China.
Abstract:
Highly porous (specific surface area, SBET, 1400 m2/g) and rich in surface groups activated carbons (ACs) were obtained from cotton stalks using either a direct or indirect activation. They were characterized by adsorption of nitrogen, thermal analysis combined with mass spectrometry, potentiometric titration, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). XPS analysis indicated that the indirect activation led to more nitrogen on the surface incorporated as pyridinic and graphitic/quaternary species. These species were beneficial for a carbon application as oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) electrocatalysts and supercapacitors. The carbons were catalytically active in ORR with a number of electron transfer from 2.15 to 3.40 and onset potential of 0.810 V vs. reference hydrogen electrode (RHE). Their capacitance was around 180 F g-1 at 1 A g-1 when measured in an alkaline medium. The dependence of the performance on the porosity and nitrogen content was found, indicating suitability of cotton stalks obtained using the indirect activation as precursors of carbons of promising electrochemically active features.
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